Internal combustion electrical backup generators (referred to also herein as simply “generators”) used at critical facilities depend on healthy batteries to provide the energy required during start-up. Battery testing is often included as part of regular generator maintenance and testing, and such testing often falls into state-of-charge (SOC) and state-of-health (SOH) categories. SOH testing methods may require manual labor (such as chemical tests of cell electrolyte samples) or simple electrical measurements that can generate false alarms, or fail to provide notification of pending failure (such as basic set points on the minimum voltage during generator start-up). More advanced electrical measurements for tracking battery SOH may involve voltage and current measurements, but may require expensive DC current transducers.
Aspects and embodiments of the present disclosure are directed generally to methods and apparatus for determining the health of a battery utilized for starting an internal combustion backup electrical generator.